Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on March 15th, once again sought to challenge the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act in Cook County Court. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, recently claimed that the Illinois Constitution contains a right to abortion. To that effect, the ACLU have questioned whether the law violates the Illinois Constitution's guarantees of privacy and due process, and the state constitutional ban on gender discrimination. The Thomas More Society, in response, maintains that there is no right to abortion in the Illinois Constitution. Thus, the ACLU's latest challenge to the Illinois Parental Notice Act is baseless.

The ACLU, which has already lost in federal court, must now prove in the Illinois state court, that the Illinois Constitution of 1970 guaranteed a right to abortion, that was even stronger than the federal abortion right upheld in Roe v Wade, which as handed down in 1973.

Now, instead of defending the Illinois Constitution, whose Framers clearly left the issue of abortion to the legislature, Attorney General Lisa Madigan, has tossed the Constitution aside and conceded to the ACLU on this key issue of parental notice. Thomas Brejcha, President & Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society stated, "Illinois parents have a right to know before their kids are taken for abortions. If the Attorney General won't defend the parental notice law vigorously, we will do so, until the day when there are no more secret abortions performed on Illinois children."

Illinois has long been the dumping ground for abortion. All 5 neighboring states have parental notice or consent laws on their books. It is well known, that teens then cross into Illinois to have their abortions, because Illinois has no enforced parental notification.